GURPS Special Forces

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Characters

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Reference

Session 03 - What Happens in Vegas - Wrap-Up

Narrative Recap

Before the team could leave on their hard-earned forty-eight-hour pass, there was business to attend to at Voss Campus. The group gathered for a final debrief on the First Terra Expedition, cataloguing suit modifications and reviewing the intelligence they had brought back. Ronnie had quietly set a black-market pipeline in motion through Eric and Xander — the drained meteorite fragment tucked away for later sale — and he had pocketed half the alien artefacts recovered from the ruined city, turning over only the other half during the official debrief. Guy requested spring-loaded forearm blades and Limpet Mines for his Voss Combat Suit, while Jens opted for a chameleon surface to complement his methodical approach. Suit modifications queued, the team loaded into a company off-road vehicle and pointed it toward Las Vegas.

Ronnie took the wheel, dressed in a gaudy red and gold Hawaiian shirt, wrinkled cargo shorts, black socks, and combat boots, his gold-rimmed aviator shades catching the desert sun. Jens, by contrast, had turned out in a fitted grey suit with cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, a pistol concealed beneath his jacket. The drive was supposed to be uneventful. Roughly halfway there, Jens demanded the vehicle stop in the middle of nowhere, insisting he had something to show everyone.

What followed left the group stunned. Jens produced a meteorite fragment — an item no one else knew he possessed — concentrated hard, and a shimmering, heat-distorted oval portal tore open in the air beside the road, revealing the alien landscape of Terra on the other side: two suns hanging in a foreign sky. The group argued immediately about the wisdom of using unauthorised alien technology, with Ronnie warning that if Voss Dynamics found out, Jens would end up in a laboratory. The real problem, however, was that Jens struggled to close the portal, and when he finally managed it, the effort left him pale and exhausted for the rest of the drive, sleeping in the back seat while the others exchanged uneasy glances.

The party arrived in Las Vegas in the early afternoon and secured top-floor suites at The Bellagio. With significant disposable income burning holes in their pockets, the group fanned out across the casino floor. Ronnie made a beeline for the sports book, where he bet thirty thousand dollars on a horse at twenty-five to one odds — a horse that promptly broke its leg mid-race. He screamed at the monitors, demanded more drinks, and eventually lost ninety thousand dollars on horse racing in roughly twenty minutes. Jens, introduced to American-style gambling, tried his hand at blackjack and video poker and lost several thousand dollars with cheerful resignation. Ronnie later joined a Mahjong game with elderly women and struggled with the rules until Guy took over, winning a thousand-dollar pot on his behalf.

As evening fell, the group moved to a high-end club with bottle service near a bachelorette party. Guy used diplomacy to charm the bride-to-be herself, who admitted with a conspiratorial smile that this might be her last chance before the wedding. Ronnie isolated a bridesmaid, separated her from the pack with practised efficiency, and disappeared into the club bathroom with a quantity of cocaine. Sammy caught the eye of a tall woman named Beth at the bar and eventually brought her back to his suite.

The night took a darker turn. Screams erupted from one floor below the party’s suites. Jens and Sammy moved to investigate, slipping stealthily down the stairwell to find a hotel room with a cleaning cart outside and the door hanging open. Inside, a massive insectoid alien creature was consuming a cleaning lady head-first, having crawled through a shimmering portal still hanging open in the middle of the room — the same room Jens had used earlier, and the portal he had struggled to close had apparently never fully sealed. Jens drew his silenced pistol and put the creature down with rapid shots to the head, then, with considerable effort, forced the portal shut. They retreated to Sammy’s room before hotel security arrived, and Sammy deflected their questions smoothly while Beth stood visible in the background.

Morning found the group at Caesars Palace for breakfast. Sammy introduced Beth to the team, prompting Ronnie to immediately ask her rate — she informed him, with considerable composure, that she was not a hooker. The group mapped their plans: a visit to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, dinner at Gordon Ramsay Steak, and a UFC fight that evening. The pawn shop was a highlight for Guy, who became obsessed with an antique plunger-style detonator — a vintage blasting machine of the sort Wile E. Coyote might have recognised — and purchased it for two thousand dollars without hesitation. He also picked up a specialised upgraded multi-tool. Ronnie, meanwhile, used cash and illicit substances to negotiate a private meeting with Rick Harrison himself, producing the meteorite fragment and watching Rick’s eyes sharpen with recognition. Rick arranged for his expert to examine it that evening.

Dinner at Gordon Ramsay Steak was extraordinary — the Chef’s Table on the second floor overlooking the open kitchen. Guy spent the meal in barely suppressed agitation, tracking every open flame and nervously clicking his lighter under the table. A waiter offered Sammy a booster seat and a children’s menu with crayons. The food was magnificent until someone attempted to order the beef Wellington to go. Gordon Ramsay himself emerged from the kitchen. He was not pleased. He informed the table in no uncertain terms that the beef Wellington would be eaten on the premises, that it was the finest thing they would ever put in their mouths, and that it would absolutely not be leaving in a paper bag. When the bill arrived, it was accompanied by a signed beef Wellington recipe addressed to “Dickhead Asshole,” which Ronnie pocketed as a treasured possession. He also wrapped his sticky toffee pudding in table linens and smuggled it out under his arm.

The UFC fights were held in a private box, and Rick Harrison arrived with his associate Igor — a short, balding man with a lazy eye, a hunchback, and a pronounced limp. Rick introduced the group to Mike Tyson in the neighbouring box, and the evening became a genuine party. During the fights, Ronnie slipped away with Rick and Igor to conduct the real business. Igor examined the meteorite fragment with a specialised instrument, turned it over, inspected it through an eyepiece, and then licked it to confirm authenticity. He declared it genuine and named his employer’s interest in acquiring more. Ronnie negotiated hard, settling on five hundred thousand dollars for the fragment, with the additional promise that Igor’s mysterious employer would provide the password to the kill switch Voss Dynamics had installed in Ronnie’s combat suit — a detail that had apparently never occurred to Ronnie until that moment. The money was transferred digitally, loaded onto a card in Ronnie’s iPhone wallet.

The night wound down at a karaoke bar, where Ronnie barged into other people’s sets and demanded “99 Luftballons” be put on for Jens. Jens performed the German classic with tremendous enthusiasm and very little technical skill, but the audience began singing along anyway. Fuelled by alcohol and particular confidence, Ronnie then spotted a street mime performing on the sidewalk and decided the mime had it coming. He threw a roundhouse punch that the mime dodged, then connected with a second strike that dropped the performer unconscious on the pavement. Five more mimes materialised from the surrounding crowd in eerie silence, closing in on Ronnie and Jens with coordinated intent. Jens stepped in to cover Ronnie’s back while Ronnie worked through the group with brutal efficiency, delivering a crushing strike to one mime’s throat that left the man choking on the ground. In the middle of the chaos, a strange man pushed through the crowd, knelt beside the first unconscious mime, pressed glowing hands against him — a visible, supernatural light emanating from his palms — before standing and walking away without a word. The remaining mimes retreated. Ronnie turned to the gathered crowd and attempted to panhandle, earning five dollars, which he put in a slot machine on the way back to the hotel and lost immediately.

The morning of departure was quiet. Sammy said his goodbyes to Beth — she seemed genuinely interested in staying in touch. Jens took the wheel for the return journey. Back at Voss Campus, the team was summoned immediately to a meeting with Boss, Major Jenkins, and three other military-looking men, including Lt. Nash Miller. The news was significant: NASA had detected a second meteor, larger than the first, expected to break up in the atmosphere and scatter fragments across a wide area. Boss divided the team into two recovery groups — one led by Guy, including Ronnie, Sammy, and Jens, and a second led by Major Jenkins with Lieutenant Nash Miller.

The mention of Nash Miller visibly darkened Guy’s expression. The hostility between them was immediate and barely contained. The group speculated quietly about what the second meteor meant — whether it was a natural occurrence, a harbinger of something larger, or a deliberate act designed to seed humanity with strange powers and watch the chaos unfold. Guy pointed out that the ruined city on Terra had shown signs of destruction roughly a century old, and that the alien planet had its own drained fragments scattered across it. Whatever was coming, it had happened somewhere else before. Back in his quarters, Guy began carefully examining the alien circuit boards he had brought back from Terra, hoping that somewhere in the strange technology was a record of what had destroyed that civilisation — and whether the same thing was now pointed at Earth.

Quick Bullets

PC Carry-Forward

Ronnie Vint (Ant)

Guy LeFleur (Timmah)

Sammy Castaneda (Jay S)

Jens Hartmann (Sean)

What Carries Forward

Unresolved Threads

Player-Stated Intentions

World State

Keeper Checklist

Quality Notes

Memorable Moments

  1. “Give me my fucking moaning machine!” — Ronnie screaming at casino security while physically wrestling with a slot machine.

  2. Jens opens a portal on the roadside — Halfway to Vegas, Jens stops the car and tears open a portal to Terra, revealing he has a meteorite fragment and powers nobody knew about.

  3. The horror in the hotel room — Sammy and Jens discover a cleaning lady being consumed head-first by an insectoid alien that crawled through a portal Jens forgot to close.

  4. “Who won the fucking war anyway?” — Ronnie’s low blow to Jens after losing an argument about gambling strategy.

  5. Gordon Ramsay confronts the table — The chef emerges personally to insist the beef Wellington will NOT be leaving in a paper bag. Later sends a signed recipe addressed to “Dickhead Asshole.”

  6. Guy buys the detonator — Instant, total fixation on a vintage Wile E. Coyote plunger-style blasting machine at the pawn shop. Two thousand dollars. No hesitation.

  7. The Potato sale — Igor licks the meteorite fragment to confirm authenticity. $500,000 changes hands. A kill switch password is promised. Ronnie returns to watch the fights like nothing happened.

  8. Five mimes emerge from the crowd — After Ronnie punches one mime unconscious, five more materialise silently and close in with coordinated intent. The glowing-handed healer appears mid-brawl and vanishes.

  9. 99 Luftballons — Jens performs the German classic at karaoke with tremendous enthusiasm and very little skill. The audience sings along anyway.

  10. Ronnie panhandles $5 — After winning a street fight against six mimes, Ronnie turns to the crowd and begs for money. Gets five dollars. Loses it in a slot machine immediately.

Reconciliation Context

GM review completed 2026-04-26. Decisions made during reconcile:

  1. Beth = Mika — Confirmed same person. Mika.md deleted, merged into Beth.md with “Mika” retained as alias.
  2. “The Boss” = Adrian Voss — CEO of Voss Dynamics, the PCs’ employer.
  3. “Paulie” = Paul (Bartender) — Alias added to existing NPC file.
  4. Guy’s eye — Lt. Nash Miller is responsible for the loss of Guy’s eye, not Major Jenkins. Corrected in play notes.
  5. Jens’s fragment — Acquired from Voss Dynamics via a special mission between Sessions 02 and 03. Open questions remain: Does Voss know about the portal ability? Was the fragment meant to be returned?
  6. Campaign TL — Confirmed TL9, not TL8. Vault-wide update still pending across ~15 files.
  7. Session title — “What Happens in Vegas” confirmed.
  8. Canon corrections from play notes — Bride charmed by Guy (not Jens); insectoid killed by Jens (not Sammy). Both corrected through all downstream files.